Faculty

The Washington Hospital Center Department of Medicine employs more than 70 full-time physicians specifically to teach in the Internal Medicine Residency and Fellowship Training Programs. Our faculty physicians are skilled clinicians who have chosen to teach residents and fellows as a large part of their daily activities. In addition to their superb clinical skills, our physicians on our faculty are active nationally as educators, investigators and leaders of major societies, such as the American College of Physicians and the Endocrine Society, the Society of General Internal Medicine. Drawing on the wealth of clinical material present in our hospital, our faculty physicians publish frequently in peer reviewed journals on topics ranging intracellular signal transduction in thyroid cancer patients to the lack of efficacy of antibiotics in the management of chronic Lyme disease.

The American College of Physicians selected the Washington Hospital Center Department of Medicine to run their Mid-Atlantic regional internal medicine review for recertification. This was in recognition of the outstanding academic reputation and the strength of our faculty.

Of prime importance is the accessibility of our faculty to our residents. Attending rounds are held at the bedside; bedside teaching allows faculty to observe and guide residents as they interact with patients, helping them develop not only clinical problem solving skills but also strong doctor patient skills. Residents are expected and encouraged to contact faculty whenever patients are admitted or undergo a change in clinical status. Faculty mentor residents in research projects that have been presented at the MedStar Research Day, the regional ACP Associates Meetings and national meetings of the American College of Physicians, the American Institute of Asthma and Allergy, the American Gastroenterology Association and the American College of Cardiology. In addition to research mentoring, our full-time and voluntary faculty participate in an organized mentoring program focused on individual resident interests and professional development.

The Washington Hospital Center hosts fellowship programs in virtually all internal medicine subspecialties. The Cardiology and Endocrinology fellowships are co-sponsored with Georgetown University. Washington Hospital Center faculty also run fellowship training programs in Gastroenterology, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Disease, Nephrology, Rheumatology and Pulmonary/Critical Care.

Section of Cardiology

Julio Panza, MD, Section Director; Director, Coronary Care Unit

Faculty

• Elmo Acio, MD, Director Nuclear Cardiology
• Federico Asch, MD
• Ravjyot Chawla, MD
• Nakela Cook, MD
• Howard Cooper, MD, Associate Director, Coronary Care Unit
• Zayd Eldadah, MD, Acting Director, Cardiac Arrhythmia Research
• Anthony Fuisz, MD, Director, Cardiac MRI
• Steven Goldstein, MD, Director, Non-Invasive Lab
• Joseph Lindsay, MD
• Leslie Miller, MD
• Samer Najjar, MD
• Susan O’Donoghue, MD, EP Fellowship Program
• Edward Platia, MD Director, Cardiac Arrhythmia Center
• George Ruiz, MD
• Pam Sears-Rogan, MD
• Manish Shah, MD
• Allen Taylor, MD, Director, Advanced Imaging
• Ron Waksman, MD
• Zuyue Wang, MD
• Wm. Guy Weigold, MD
• Gaby Weissman, MD
• Neil Weissman, MD
• Jared Widell, MD

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research activities: Outcomes analysis of coronary angioplasty and percutaneous mitral valvulotomy; use of IIB/IIIA inhibitors in unstable angina; clinical and animal laboratory use of new devises and techniques for coronary angioplasty; transcatheter management of carotid disease and abdominal aortic aneurysms; cardiac MRI; clinical management of endocarditis.

Section of Endocrinology

Kenneth Burman, MD, Section Director

Faculty:

• Priya Kundra,MD
• Michelle Magee, MD
• Barbara Onumah, MD
• Yasser Ousman, MD, Associate Director, Diabetes Team
• Meeta Sharma, MD, Assistant Chief of Endocrine; Director, Diabetes Team
• Leonard Wartofsky, MD, Chairman, Department of Medicine
• Jason Wexler, MD

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Activities: Graves Disease; Management of Thyroid Cancer; Intracellular Signaling in Thyroid Cancer; Optimization of Care in Diabetes; Lipid Disorders; Diabetes Prevention Strategies.

Section of Gastroenterology

Kevin Olden, MD, Section Director

Faculty:

• Mahmood Abedi, MD
• Michael S. Gold, MD
• Averell Sherker, MD, Director, Hepatology

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Interests: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Endoscopic Ultrasound; Interventional Endoscopy; Motility Disorders; Chronic Hepatitis.

Section of General Internal Medicine

Carmella Cole, MD Section Director; Associate Chair, Department of Medicine

Faculty:

• Elizabeth Bluhm, MD
• Wambui Chege, MD
• Godwin Darko, MD
• Zeba Geloo, MD
• Abbie Miller, MD
• Syeda Moosvi, MD
• Arrel Olano, MD
• Sailaja Pindiprolu, MD, Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Program
• Deborah Topol, MD, Associate Program Director Internal Medicine

Fellowship Training Program: No

Research Activities: Patient Satisfaction; Optimizing curriculum using adult learning theory; Racial issues in graduate medical education; Qualitative Methods; Procedural competency issues in training.

Section of Geriatric Medicine

• K. Eric DeJonge, MD, Section Director

Faculty

• Stephanie Bruce, MD
• Zeba Geloo, MD
• Namirah Jamshed, MD
• George Taler, MD; Director of Long Term Care

Fellowship Training Program: No

Research Activities: Clinical and Economic Outcomes of Medical House Call Program

Section of Hematology/Oncology

Dennis Priebat, MD, Section Director, Medical Oncology

Faculty:

• Joseph Catlett, MD
• Vera Malkovska, MD, Director, Hematology
• David Perry, MD
• Aarothi Shenoy, MD
• Karen Smith, MD
• Sandra Swain, MD, Medical Director, Cancer Institute
• Nitin Verma, MD
• Irina Veytsman, MD

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Activities: Phase I, II, III chemotherapy trials; thrombosis and bleeding; cancer prevention in non- English speaking communities; applied ethics and end of life care.

Section of Hospitalist Medicine

Faculty:

• Hossein Akhondi, MD
• Christopher DeGannes, MD
• Abdul-Karim Elhabyan, MD
• Shadi Hamwi, MD
• Shameem Huq, MD
• Estella Jean, MD
• Kalpana Jindal, MD
• Lauren Mauro, MD
• Matthew McAndrews, MD
• Nicole Parks, MD
• Shahram Sani, MD
• Scott Sheppard, MD
• Gillian Southwell, MD
• Abubakari Welle, MD
• Libay Woldeyes, MD

Section of Infectious Disease and Host Immunity

Margo Smith, MD, Section Director

Faculty:

• Leon Lai, MD
• Maria Ruiz, MD
• Shmuel Shoham, MD

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Activities: Host Defense/Immunology; Endocarditis; Tropical Infectious Diseases; Tuberculosis; Transplantation Infectious Diseases.

Section of Nephrology

Jack Moore, MD, FACP, Section Director

Faculty:

• Tulsi Mehta, MD
• Janis Orlowski, MD, Senior Vice-President, Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer
• Michael Sherman, MD
• Judith Veis, MD, Director, Dialysis Unit

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Activities: Acid base disorders, Renal Disease in Woman, Urinary tract Infections, Refractory hypertension, Glomerular disease.

Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Respiratory Services

Gene Colice, MD, Section Director

Faculty:

• Chee Chan, MD
• Sanjay Desai, MD; Director, Medical Intensive Care Unit, Associate Program Director
• Burton Lee, MD; Program Director, Pulmonary/Critical Care
• Peter Levit, MD
• Andrew Shorr, MD; Associate Director Pulmonary/Critical Care

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Interests: Evidence Based Medicine; Acute Respiratory Failure, Lung Cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Sleep Disordered Breathing.

Section of Nuclear Medicine

Douglas Van Nostrand, MD, FACP, FACNP, Section Director

Faculty:

• Elmo Acio, MD , Director of Nuclear Cardiology
• Kanchan Kulkarni, MD
• Gerald Johnston, MD
• Carlos Garcia, MD
• Frank Atkins, PhD
• Guiseppe Esposito, MD

Research Interests: Thyroid Carcinoma, Radioiodine Therapy, Radioimmunotherapy for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Pancreatic Carcinoma, Nuclear Cardiology, PET Scanning, and Cardiac Diagnostics

Section of Rheumatology

Arthur Weinstein, MD, Section Director

Faculty:

• Christopher Collins, MD
• Florina Constantinescu, MD
• Brian Walitt, MD

Fellowship Training Program: Yes

Research Activities: Lyme Disease, Chronic Fatigue, Lupus Nephritis, Osteoporosis